"Leonora Will Never Die" - the ultimate satire of Filipino media
The first Filipino film to become a recipient of the Sundance Special Jury Award comes this weird, genre-defying movie within a movie within a movie.
Leonor is just a sweet, old lola - aloof, absentminded at times, and would spend her money on 80s Filipino action films and old-school comics. A retired filmmaker and screenplay writer, her son Rudie (played by Bong Cabrera) takes care of her at home but his pacing and stress-smoking and electricity-cuts because of Leonor’s forgetfulness to pay the bills make her feel like a burden.
Combining genres such as comedy, drama, dysfunctional families, classic 70s and 80s action comes this weirdly genre-confused film, written and directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar, about a Filipino grandmother (played by theatre legend Sheila Francisco) trapped in her unfinished screenplay and lost in her endless mourning for the death of her other son, Ronwaldo (played by Anthony Falcon in the real world). Her frustration with her impatient son led her to the back of her house where a television fell on her head, knocking her into a dream world of her obsession - 70s/80s action flicks.
Other than the series of corny scenes typical of those nostalgic action films our dads and titos used to watch (corny fight scenes that are noticeably fake, terrible dialogue, and a cringe-worthy sex scene with over-the-top moaning), Martika utilizes other techniques that distort the plot and redirect our sense of reality. As the story of Ronwaldo (Rocky Salumbides in the 80s action) seeking to avenge his brother’s murder, it switches between the 80s action flick through the perfect square frame and grainy film, and the actual world through the cinematic frame and pale tones reminiscent of modern Filipino films. And after Isabella (played by Rea Molina) from the screenplay gets kidnapped, we see the scene of Ronwaldo (played by Rocky Salumbides in the 80s action) running through the favelas and then suddenly stop, replaying like a scratched record and showing that this where Leonor’s unfinished screenplay ended.
At this stage of the film, the plot starts to fall apart - it’s as if you’re in the middle of the thought when your mind began to wander and you lost that train of thought. Every scene afterwards feels like the end of the film, until you’re surprised by another twist that gets weirder and weirder. The moral of the story is that a story never has an end - it’s always continuing and evolving, going through bouts of messiness and complexities similar to that of our own personal stories as we grow. They project an empowering message that the ending of the story doesn’t have to be the same, and that it’s up to you as a writer to finish it.
Have you seen the film yet? What are your thoughts?
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